Category Archives: Rattling The Boards

Via Renaud Lavoie Jarome Iginla will or would waive his no movement clause for the Boston Bruins, Los Angeles Kings, and Chicago Blackhawks, and the Pittsburgh Penguins. A quick look at the offenses of the teams has Pittsburgh at the top of the NHL, the Blackhawks a close second, while the Los Angeles Kings and Boston Bruins are treading water in 12th and 13th place in goals per game. Chicago is ranked as having the deepest prospect pool by Hockey’s Future, while the Flames system is weak overall on depth, particularly at right wing.

Another coach firing on a teach with an ECHL roster lightly-speckled with NHL talent. When the Tampa Bay Lightning went to the Eastern Conference Finals two years ago, two things got them there, one was Dwayne Roloson, the other was Guy Boucher. Both of them are gone, and both were highly under rated for the jobs they did. If a dispersal draft were done on Lightning today, its an open question how many of their players would be picked and retained both other teams. It 31 games into the season and they have just one player to score more than 10 goals, and that player also has the second worst +/- on the team. Career backup Garon has the teams best sv%, depth center Nate Thompson is arguably the best defensive player on the whole roster, and none of the decisions that got them onto the clubs payroll happen at the coaches level. Guy Boucher goes out the door, in another time and place Steve Yzerman would be tossed out a window.

The CHL playoffs are under way and Fang Faction has taken a look a Predators prospects in the playoffs.

David Krejci is drawing heat is the Boston Bruins continue to tread water in fourth place in the east.

The North American Hockey League is producing some Division One NCAA, the Brookings Blizzard announced there’s Aidan Cavallini and you can get the rest of the leagues commitments right here.

And as we roll closer and closer to that most wonderful day of the year Draft day, a look at the US National Development Team is looking toward its own future of smiling eyes and wide smiles.

The Phoenix Coyotes, currently owned and administered by the National Hockey League signed young star blueliner Oliver Ekman-Larsson to a sweet, sweet deal worth $33 million over six years. Of note is that the heavily backweighted nature of the contract means whoever buys the team (may it be soon) will pay him two times as much in 2018-19 as the NHL will pay him next season. As long as he continues to improve it should still be a good price.

Don’t look now, but the Minnesota Wild are just two points out of the Northwest division lead. Sure, for the past ten decades that’s been a lot like finishing second in the Special Olympics, but this year staying close means even if the don’t overtake the flat in their last ten Vancouver Canucks, the 6-4-0 in their last ten Wild on the other hand are trending in the right direction and have allowed 8 less goals in the 26 games each has played. The Xcel Energy center will be quite juiced up in May if the return of native son Zach Parise helps spark the team to a playoff berth.

Vladimir Sobotka will play in his 300th career game tonight. #stlblues

Sobotka was traded to the St Louis Blues from the Boston Bruins for David Warsovfky after the 2009-10 season and has appeared in 165 regular season games for the Blues. Warsovsky has yet to even get a cup of coffee in the NHL, Vladimir Sobotka has played an additional 9 playoff games. Currently Sobotka is fourth on the Blues in goal scoring.

The Tampa Bay Lightning waived, and their division rivals the Carolina Hurricanes, who happen to read lead the division, claimed Adam Hall. The Michigan native has played for the Nashville Predators, the New York Rangers, the Pittsburgh Penguins since coming into the NHL in 2001. Canes fans should expect Hall to slide into the penalty kill. It is interesting that the Lightning who are 13th in the NHL on the penalty kill should waive him, unless one looks down form their position rather than up. The Hurricanes on the other hand are 22nd in the league as of today and will likely give the UFA to be a workload similar to the 2:11 of shorthanded time on ice he had with the Lightning.

Monday evening, Kimmo Timonen of the Philadelphia Flyers will play his 1000th NHL game. The bastion of the blueline has been in a Flyers uniform since the 2007-08 season and will be celebrating his birthday as well. The Finnish native was drafted in the 10th round of the 1993 NHL Entry Draft by the Los Angeles Kings whom he never played a game for.

Mike Milbury thinks Mike Ribeiro of the Washington Capitals will be available at the deadline. Long his favorite team, Milbury had little more than “buyer beware” to say of the former Dallas Star and Montreal Canadien.

A rumor that Boston’s most famous hockey playing fashionista might be returning to the NHL this year set Bruins fans abuzz for hours. Anders Per Johan Axelsson known on this side of the pond simply as “PJ” was a stalwart member of the Black and Gold for a dozen NHL seasons. His penalty killing, work ethic, and fashion sense are greatly missed in some quarters. Axelsson’s agent did not return contact by the time this was published.

There is a new and exciting youth hockey league coming to the USA this fall. September will see the sixteen initial teams of the Midwest Junior Hockey League skate into action in two conferences of eight teams. The conferences will be broken down into four team divisions. The young men will chase the Veterans Memorial Cup. Tryouts, team locations and other information available at their website. Follow them on twitter @MWJHLHockey visit their site MWJHL and like them on Facebook. Tell them @PuckSage sent you.

Tyler Seguin is looking for a +1 for the Batman Dark KnightRises premiere.

The former #2 pick, Stanley Cup Champion, Bruins 7th Player Award Winner, former NHL Young Sttar and NHL All Star and committed Whole Foods shopper is apparently lacking in companionship. Please help him.

The everlasting gobstopper of hockey stories; Where’s Rick Nash going to be in October has not of course wasted away to a memory. Instead it lingers and brings two other important questions: Who will be captain when he leaves? Who will be the teams (token) All Star representative and likely the captain of one team? Assuming he goes it’s looking more and more like James Wisniewski could be a future NHL captain and All Star. Free popcicles for everyone, not just Sean Avery.

There are a lot of things left to do this summer for some teams. A few still have not held their prospect camps. These camps do impact teams free agent movement, particularly for depth positions. Players who decide they will leave college early, or who might make the jump to the pros from juniors will impact signings from the NHL down through the AHL and ECHL as well.

3: Where do they all land? Big name bingo, will Rick Nash, Bobby Ryan, Jay Bouwmeester, and other of the rumored trade pieces actually be moved? Will the most notable injured players retire, return or linger in limbo? Even playing at a level reduced by age Chris Pronger would still be a big addition to the Flyers, Nathan Horton’s big body and heavy shot can do a lot to help the Boston Bruins powerplay, and Marian Hossa is an essential part of the Chicago Blackhawks. Then there are the free agents who will affect marketing, ticket sales, drafting, and of course winning and losing. Doan, Colaicavo, Semin, Selanne and the rest are each impact players who won’t cost anything but a contract and salary.

2: CBA In Play? The question of the new collective bargaining agreement is as currently positioned by both sides optimistic. As a fan, I’d feel more comfortable if they put together a formal agreement to continue for the next season with the current CBA even if they don’t reach a new one. What will the new agreement look like? Will it include some exceptions to the cap? Perhaps a catastrophic injury clause? Or the elimination of the +35 contract?

1: And now growth? With the Coyotes headed towards a final resolution in Glendale, and the Islanders looking like they might end up with an arena on Long Island, and the New Jersey Devils hoping to quash their financial drama, is it time to eye expansion? If expansion is the aim, and with teams like Carolina and and Nashville spending big in small markets, the time might be ripe, isn’t the iron hot now? Quebec City and Saskatchewan have expressed their desire to have teams north of the border. None of them would involve the nasty infighting among ownership that a second greater Toronto area team might. South of the border their are a lot of cities that make sense, the Houston, Tx area is the largest US metropolitan area without an NHL franchise, and with the Dallas market starting to produce NHL players and draftees a second team in a state with a population that compares to all of Canada’s, just make sense. Other much discussed locations include Seattle, Wa, Las Vegas, and Kansas City.

Two of the more interesting players to hit the news in the last couple days are Derek Roy and Mike Santorelli. The Buffalo Sabres Roy has one year left on a contract that will pay him five and a half with a cap hit of four. Santorelli of the Florida Panthers is likely a less prohibitive gamble. His salary is one point six this year and like Roy he’s a center.

In his first full year in the NHL Mike Santorelli put up 20 goals and 21 assists good for second in points and third in goals on a not very good Panthers team. That was two seasons ago where he played just over sixteen minutes a night and potted a short handed goal and powerplay goals. He was also above 50% in faceoffs. This year under the new head coach, and with an influx of new players he saw drastically less time. Kevin Dineen did a remarkable job with the talent, and injuries his team had. Between Santorelli’s shoulder injury to start the season, and the new system of Dineen he found himself marginalized and has since been waived.

Derek Roy has been a member of the Buffalo Sabres since he drafted 32nd overall in 2001. He’s only had one NHL head coach in that time. During Lindy Ruff’s tenure, the longest in the NHL, the Sabres have been up, down and largely a low spending team. Terry Pegula taking over the team recently has led to a change in the tableau and not only is the teams attitude toward spending different, expectations are much higher. Roy was not alone in having a sub-standard season, but he seems to be one of the scapegoats for it. During this season Ruff was injured and ended up loaning head coaching duties to one of the assistants. This may or may not have played a role in Roy’s slide to his worst NHL full season point total.

Do we blame the coaches? Did Dineen dismiss a player who had had success the previous season because of an injury? Is not getting the best out of an experienced player a failure on Ruff’s part? Or did Santorelli go have as much trouble learning the new playbook as Ochocinco? Is Roy tuning out Ruff, giving into the teams malaise?

Either way, both players present intriguing options for teams looking for help at center. Roy has a potential claim to a top line in some cities. Santorelli is more likely a second or third line center. Puck possession being a priority, especially for teams like the Flames, Ducks, or Lightning both players offer a chance to make starting play with the puck

If your team is in need of some size and shutdown ability on the blueline, this guy might just be the answer. – Dan Sallows

With the trade deadline rolling down on us, its time to add a defensemen to the list of guys who want to be elsewhere currently headed by Jeff Carter and Antero Nittymaki, Marek Zidlicky has apparently started the blowback in Minnesota. – Hockey Wilderness

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